Creating my own book has long been on my list of things I wanted to try. I have a super long list of things I want to do but I don’t always have the direction needed to start. The 13 Days Adrift Book Collab provided the direction I needed.
The Book Collab is hosted by my creative friend, Tina Walker, a columnist for StencilGirl Stencils. I did this collab just for fun using stencils that I already owned. We were challenged to use a small vintage booklet. We could take the booklet apart any way we wished as long as parts of the booklet were used and visible within the newly made art journal. We were also asked to choose one theme shape to carry out throughout the booklet. We would stencil that themed shape on each page. I chose to use circles. Our color palette was limited to black, white, and grey. The grey makes perfect sense as that happens when shades of black and white mix. It was stipulated that we could use any shade of grey in between. This is where I creatively bent the rules a bit. The original booklet had a cream color and the images inside the booklet had a bluish-grey tone. In some ways, the image colors were more blue than grey. I decided to use Payne’s Grey throughout my journal to pull those tones into the pages in a cohesive way.
The name of the art collab comes from the name of the booklet itself. 13 Days Adrift is the story of a man who sets sail from St. Petersburg, Florida across the Atlantic. During his journey, the boat he is on is attacked and sunk. He is injured during the attack. He and his crewmates float aimlessly for days until rescued. The booklet ends with his return home. Throughout the book, the author talks about his trials. Perhaps it was the mood of the book combined with the chosen color palette that caused me to think of anxiety. My book was crumbling a bit as I cut it apart which further lent to the mood of my journal. I clipped small words and phrases from it to weave my own tale. I mixed in quotes and phrases to enhance my story as well. Don’t worry, it’s not all somber. Even anxiety has a cycle to it and there is a bit of hope and relief at the end.
The cover of the book is cardboard painted black. I used a bit of scrap lace over the top to make it feel less plain. This was my first time stitching a book. Overall, it went fine but I do think the binding could be a bit tighter. The book seems to feel loose and the cover and pages shift a bit.
It took me a few weeks to make and complete the book. I started by choosing the number of pages and then creating backgrounds for each page spread. I used heavy watercolor paper for the inside pages as I felt it had a slight cream color that would compliment the torn book pages I would be using. I knew I wanted to add hand stitching to the page and the thickness of the watercolor paper would make that easier to accomplish. I had no idea of the story I would tell until I had the book sewn together and began doodling inside of it. As I deconstructed the booklet, the story seemed to almost “fall out” along with the pieces I was removing. I am happy with the outcome but I do expect that as I make future handmade journals, I will see improvements to my work.